Thread: Who took the "hot" out of hot rod?

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Let me get on the other side of the tracks a little in this discussion. I'm like most of you who are approaching mid-life , and have gone through every phase that this hobby has had. First were the cars we built in High School when we didn't have a pot or any idea what we were doing. Then, when we got jobs we could afford to either spend more on our cars or buy a shiny new muscle car. After that came family responsibilities and we somehow managed to squeeze out a few bucks to keep our hand in the hobby. Finally, once the kids (and sometimes the Wife ) were gone, we could afford the time and money to seriously pursue our dreams.

But after doing this for so many years and seeing so much of the hobby it started to become boring for some of us. When I go to a car show I walk by hundreds of shiny cookie cutter cars that are all built with the same 1-800 parts source, but will stop and stare at a car that the guy or gal used their imagination and busted up fingers to create from nothing. That is why car shows like Billetproof are becoming so popular. The cars that come to these events are the products of late nights and probably late mortgage payments, as opposed to cars that some pro shop turned out for big bucks.

Another aspect is that we are trying to recapture some of our youth by recreating cars that we saw back then, but couldn't afford. These cars are exciting on another level from the tire smoking, fire breathing ones we ran down the quarter mile. They are a visual trip down memory lane, and are just plain cool. Speed and horsepower are not as important to some of us these days as is dependability and being unique. To me, going to most car shows now is like walking through a new car dealer's lot looking at row after row of cars that all look the same, except for the different colors.

I never wanted a flathead powered rod in my life, but I just picked up the complete running gear and engine from a '46 Ford, and can't wait to get started on a little rod using all of those parts.

Just my opinion.

Don